1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates generally to wireless communication, and more particularly to reception of wireless signals of different wireless protocols using a shared gain stage to reduce signal loss.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication is being used for a plethora of applications, such as in laptops, cell phones, and other wireless communication devices (“wireless devices”). In fact, wireless communication is becoming so widely used, it is common for wireless devices to be able to communicate using a plurality of different wireless communication protocols. Accordingly, it is common for a wireless device to have different circuit portions that implement different wireless protocols.
When a wireless device receives a wireless signal on its antenna, the signal is converted to baseband and then provided (split) to the different circuit portions that implement the different wireless protocols. In one prior art implementation, a splitter is placed before the signal is provided to the different circuit portions. Thus only half of the original signal energy is provided to each of the different circuit portions. As a result, each of the split signals suffers a 3 dB loss in sensitivity. In another prior art implementation, the device uses a switch to switch the signal to the different circuit portions. However, only one circuit portion may be used at a time, and the device is not able to simultaneously receive multiple signals of different wireless protocols. Therefore, improvements in wireless devices are desired.